MARTIN VAN HEEMSKERCK MAARTEN VAN HEMSERCK (Heemskerk, 1498-Haarlem, 1574)."Vanitas.Oil on oak

MARTIN VAN HEEMSKERCK MAARTEN VAN HEMSERCK (Heemskerk, 1498-Haarlem, 1574).
"Vanitas.
Oil on oak panel. Engatillada.
Size: 63 x 69 cm; 85 x 101 cm (frame).
In a sober interior rests the figure of a small boy, who sleepily rests one of his hands on a skull, while with the other one he holds a poster on which it can be read "Nascendo Morimur". The image, which loses its innocence through the presence of death as an idea lurking over the child's innocence and innocence, takes place in an interior of great spatial amplitude. In this space, only the curtain stands out as an ornamental element, which, due to its colour and modelling, brings luminosity and volume to the work. On the right-hand side, the space is open to a distant landscape dominated by the cold colours of the vegetation, while the sky has been painted in a warmer ochre. In this vegetation, the figure of a second character can be seen, which is outlined in the composition. Returning to the words on the poster carried by the protagonist, Nascendo Morimur refers to a specific 16th-century artistic genre, which could be translated as "As we are born, so we die". This was a popular theme in Flanders and Germany during that period, and is strongly related to the more popular Vanitas still lifes. Within the genre of vanities, which was so important, depicting the transience of life was one of the themes that most preoccupied Baroque artists. Vanities denounce the relativity of knowledge and the vanity of the human race subject to the passage of time and death. Its title and conception are related to a passage from Ecclesiastes: "vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas" ("vanity of vanities, all is vanity").

Marten Jacobszoon Heemskerk van Veen was a Netherlandish painter of the so-called Antwerp school, known for his portraits, his religious works and his reconstructions of the Seven Wonders of the World, which were disseminated throughout Europe in prints. He learned with Jan van Scorel and was influenced by Italian Mannerism in his workshop, but his style changed radically when he was able to travel to Italy (with a long stop in Rome, where he seems to have collaborated with Antonio da Sangallo the Younger on the Porta di San Sebastiano) and see everything at first hand. Even after returning to his native country in 1536, he always maintained a highly ornamental aesthetic, which earned him a very comfortable position and a certain prestige. His work, which is not very abundant, is to be found in museums such as the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge (UK), the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the National Museum in Warsaw and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, as well as in important private collections.